Wow, what a difference a year makes. Teladoc late last week agreed to acquire health monitoring platform Livongo, which provides services for managing chronic conditions like diabetes, for $18.5bn.

Comment from Bill Taranto, founder and president, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund

Wendell Brooks, senior vice-president at Intel and president Intel Capital, has resigned after six years.

Comment from Gen Tsuchikawa, chief investment manager, Sony Innovation Fund

The week has started with some tantalizing morsels from our news editor, Rob Lavine, rested after his recent holiday and very welcome for his return (especially by Thierry Heles who covered for him so well last week).

It's one thing for a large corporation to partner another in order to build a total solution for a product, but doing the same with a startup seems somewhat harder.

Italy was one of the first European countries to be hit hard by the covid-19 disease as the coronavirus swept the world and it seems to have helped spark a growth mindset among its leaders to catalyse its innovation capabilities through venture.

Daily leader from editor-in-chief James Mawson.

There are occasional silver linings even for the blackest clouds. One was as the Covid-19 disease broke out this year competition for deals became a little lighter.

There are occasional silver linings even for the blackest clouds. One was as the covid-19 disease broke out this year competition for deals became a little lighter.